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5 Essential Skills You Need to Land Your First Front-End Developer Job

Killer Skills For Front-End Web Developer

So, you want to become a front-end web developer? For those of you who do not know, there are two types of developers: the front-end and the back-end. The former works on the things that you can see on a website (the content, the font, pictures, etc.) by using different programming languages such as Javascript, HTML, and CSS. The back-end handles the processes that cannot be seen by the naked eye but it also equally important for the website to work such as handling server maintenance and requests.

For the purpose of this article, I will only delve deeper about front-end developers. The beauty of being a front-end developer these days is there really is no shortage of employers who are looking for one.

No matter what your experience level may be, if you know how to create a website by using code, then you’re going to land any job in the field.

That being said, you do need some essential skills to help you land on that job. Do not worry, I will highlight some of them so that you will be well-equipped.

Considered to be the backbone of any website, HTML is primarily used for the content that you see on a webpage. This involves any text or data that you can see on the page.

CSS is the primary language that is used to make the layouts, the colors, and any other graphical element.

Now you know the reason why these two are the most important when it comes to web development. Both of them are quite complex in their own right, so you have to start learning about them, stat!

2. jQuery/Javascript

Any interactive element that you find on a website is thanks to Javascript. Although HTML and CSS are markup language and style sheet language, respectively, Javascript is a genuine programming language.

In the simplest explanation, HTML just provides the foundation while Javascript ensures that everything else works as intended. For instance, HTML is responsible for any texts that you see on the page while Javascript is responsible for any animations or videos that you see.

Javascript is so vast that under it, you will find a lot of frameworks. jQuery is just one of the many libraries that you can use to utilize Javascript. It has a lot of plugins and extensions that you can use to make Javascript implementation easier and faster.

3. Frameworks

“Frameworks” in the field of web development refers to a set of tools, plugins, and extensions that will help in giving an easier time to the developer by doing a lot of mundane things quickly and efficiently.

There are many frameworks out there that you can use- each of them having their own strengths and weaknesses. Javascript, for example, has both the Angular and React frameworks. Both are nearly the same, but one is much user-friendly than the other.

4. Git

Developing a website from scratch can be a tedious process and one horrifying thing that you should take note of is that if you’re not careful, the entire code that you’ve built could get lost and you have to start over again.

This is where a GIT comes in. Git is just a fancy word to refer to Version Control and it is essentially a tool that allows you to track any changes you’ve made to your code so that you can go back to it whenever you find any bugs.

Doing so will not only save you lots of time by going back only to the most specific parts of the code, but it will also make saves of your current progress as well.

5. Testing/Debugging

Look, no matter how much experience you have under your belt, there will always be a time where bugs will be present in your code. This can be either in the form of an incorrect function or an improper text.

Therefore, as a good developer, you must know how to test and debug your code so that everything will be working fine and smoothly.